Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Risks Dissolution in State Crackdown

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- An Egyptian judicial advisory panel
said the Muslim Brotherhood’s registration ran afoul of the law,
raising the possibility it could be dissolved as ousted
President Mohamed Mursi is referred to criminal court.

The non-binding opinion by a panel that advises an Egyptian
administrative court marks the latest blow to the organization,
whose fortunes have plunged from power broker under Mursi to
pariah with the Islamist’s July 3 overthrow.

The panel said the Brotherhood ran afoul of laws governing
associations and recommended its registration be suspended. A
Cairo administrative court postponed until Nov. 5 a hearing on
the possible dissolution of the group.

The advisory opinion was handed down a day after Mursi was
referred to court on allegations he incited the killing of
protesters outside a Cairo presidential palace in one of the
most violent confrontations involving his supporters. Two other
top Brotherhood leaders and 12 other members of the organization
were also charged in the case.

The referral comes amid the harshest crackdown the
Brotherhood has faced in decades, threatening to further inflame
the country’s turmoil. Egypt is struggling to revive a moribund
economy, heal deep rifts between secularists and Islamists and
push ahead with a political transition that entails amending the
suspended constitution largely drafted by Islamists and holding
new elections early next year.

Constitutional Amendments

Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour, yesterday ordered
the formation of a 50-member panel to address constitutional
amendments. The panel, which has 60 days to finish its work, is
largely made up of secularists.

While working to quash the Brotherhood and end its
diminished, near-daily protests, the military-backed government
also faces mounting security risks, including a foiled attack on
a ship passing through the Suez Canal and militant assaults on
security forces in the northern Sinai peninsula.

The military tightened security following the Aug. 31
incident on the canal, which handles 8 percent of world trade.
The canal and the ships passing through it are completely
secured, the state-run Middle East News Agency citied Osama
Askar, commander of the Third Field Army, as saying.